EU Environmental funding: Five building blocks to trigger a systemic shift to climate neutrality

LIFE is one of the most iconic and long-standing EU programmes, translating climate policy into concrete action and projects on the ground. Given the very daunting task of transforming the EU into the world’s first climate-neutral economy by midcentury, it is reassuring to see that additional funding has been allocated to corresponding delivery mechanisms. To be successful in contributing to this goal, the LIFE programme will have to support a genuine cultural and systemic shift among public administrations, economic operators and society as a whole.

This paper articulates how this can be done through five key recommendations:

1 – Climate action that goes beyond “climate topics”: de-clustering the LIFE programme

2 – The race to climate neutrality calls for new in-house capacity as well as advisory and delivery bodies

3 – Renovating more than buildings: putting the New European Bauhaus spirit into practice

4 – Systemic change: putting energy restraint on the European map

5 – A circular economy beyond products and materials

Read the full paper to learn more!